Organizations that get stuck on the second page and beyond
on Google already find themselves in a difficult
position to market themselves. And, one of the main reasons they are on page
two to begin with is poor marketing.
So, creating killer content to benefit your SEO strategy is critical. Valuable content increases the chances that readers will want to share it. Valuable content also will be used by relevant, authoritative sites. Quality finds quality.
Social media tip
One tip that I will continue to implement into both my
personal and professional social media content is building landing pages that
have specific content to both enlighten and inform your audiences who have just
clicked to your site from a search engine. In his book, New
Rules of Marketing and PR, Scott
(2015) noted several guidelines for landing pages, including creating a page
that looks like your brand and assuring the landing page is communications not
advertising. It sounds simple enough but many organizations cram too much
content onto their pages. Another tip by Scott is to provide a quote from a happy
customer. Testimonials show your customers that other customers are happy with
your product.
The website unbounce.com
offers 101
landing page optimization tips. There’s everything from the fundamentals to
building forms to the importance of testing, testing, testing. There’s also a
tip about the importance of showing a phone number on the landing page. We need
to remember there are many people still not comfortable with online
transactions but are willing to order over the phone.
There are plenty of humorous takes on SEO, too. For more SEO
fun, click here.
There’s even a rap song about SEO.
And, by the way, I found these on page two of search results!
Social media challenge
One lesson presented as a consideration through new
approaches in marketing and PR is to question whether we even need a website
anymore. In likeable social media,
Kerpen (2015) noted that he believes there will definitely be companies and
organizations in 2016 whose only official website will be their Facebook or
Twitter page or their blog.
However, I believe a website, especially one that is
mobile-friendly, is needed. The Internet
site MorWeb provided four reasons why
you need a website. They are:
Impression and Brand Credibility, Refreshing visitors’ database, increasing
online visibility, and controlling the brand story.
Some companies believe they can’t create a website on their
own and it will cost thousands if not hundred of thousands of dollars to hire
an outside agency to build one for them. Fortunately, most companies can build
their own websites. There are hundreds of
“how to” videos on the web, such as this one for
do-it-yourselfers:
Social media sites are operated by third party vendors.
Companies like Facebook control and make changes to the hosting of your page
content. You have little say in the matter. But, with your own website, you can
choose the way you talk about your brand and your products and make an impact
on the minds of your customers.
